The matters disclosed in the Background Art section are provided to promote the understanding of the background of the invention, and thus, may include matters that are not conventional art known to one of ordinary skill in the art to which the present invention pertains.
The conventional traffic information system uses an electronic flow-type vehicle detector, in which electricity is flowed into a circular wire laid on the road, and the residual amount generated by the variation of magnetic flux, which changes with the movement of vehicles, is used to detect the vehicle speed, while CCTV camera or a speed sensor installed on the road is used as equipment for collecting particular traffic information. In the conventional traffic information system, the traffic information collected via said means is used to control traffic lights, provide wired or wireless traffic information to users, and send traffic information to users collected on a real-time basis.
Further, in recent times, with an increase in the user carrying a mobile communication terminal, various content service using such terminals are being provided. Among such content service is a service for receiving wireless information of the departing point and the destination from a mobile communication terminal installed in a moving vehicle, to give directions for the shortest paths from the departing point to the destination. For example, when the user inputs the name of the departing point or the destination into a mobile communication terminal or a separate navigation terminal in the form of voice or text, route information from the departing point to the destination is generated and is output to the user using voice, text and signal sound.
However, the conventional traffic information service has a problem of not being able to precisely forecast in real time the traffic condition of a road at a specific point of time based on the historical data by road segment. Moreover, the signal cycle by road segment, as well as the signal cycle of city block unit where many road segments belong to, cannot be optimized.